Spellpower while leveling

Hello all

I'm a former feral drood and I decided to respecc balance halfway level 71 because I was really sick of kitty charge
I had some blues n epix I offspec rolled tanking in Kara and ZA wich I quickly supplemented with quests rewards. Now I have a coupe of questions.

1. Is it normal for a moonkin to wear a crapload of cloth? Half my gear is cloth, so AoE grinding has become tougher because of lessening armor values. Are more moonkins experiencing this?

2. Also, I have unbuffed around 700-800 spellpower. Fully buffed I have gotten up to 1200 spellpower using my Idol of the Unseen Moon and popping trinkets. Is my unbuffed spell power supposed to be this low? Or am I staring myself blind on people with t6 and s4 gear?

3. My crit chance is around 10% This seems absurd low, or is this normal too when leveling?

I have been feral for forever, and being forced to wear cloth confuses me. Some help/comments would be nice =)

Re: Spellpower while leveling

1. It is very common, yes. The only places to get proper SP leather gear @70 is tier pieces and heroic badge stuff. Even the WotlK quest rewards are a poor supply of caster leather For leveling, PvP stuff isn't too bad either.
But there is veeery little from random drops and quest rewards. I reccomend badge stuff @ low 70s, and from about lvl77 on you can gradually replace most of it with quite nice faction rewards throughout northrend. Don't rely too much on instance drops or quest rewards, there are litte and most of them are not that much better (if at all) than badge gear until late 70s.

2. It appears to be a bit lowish, though not abyssmal. I would say that you could get about 1k from lvl70 badge gear and a few proper random things.

3. It is normal. Moonkins appear to be crit-centered because of various procs, but they really aren't. When comparing casters at roughly the same gear level, moonkins have always been those with the lowest crit, sometimes even lower than some spriests (when neglecting the aura). Just keep in mind, that you always get 9% from talents, so the situation isn't as bad as the base number shows.

Re: Spellpower while leveling

1. Is it normal for a moonkin to wear a crapload of cloth? Half my gear is cloth, so AoE grinding has become tougher because of lessening armor values. Are more moonkins experiencing this?

KyMyK: Yes, it is normal. Armor doesn't matter too much in instances anyway, tank has agro, u just have to nuke. Also, it is highly recommended that if u want to be a Restokin ( Healing with Balance Talents ), u should be FULL CLOTH. Full cloth is less armor better stats

2. Also, I have unbuffed around 700-800 spellpower. Fully buffed I have gotten up to 1200 spellpower using my Idol of the Unseen Moon and popping trinkets. Is my unbuffed spell power supposed to be this low? Or am I staring myself blind on people with t6 and s4 gear?

KyMyK: Yes your spell power is unfortunately low... I have about 1500, but im full blue level 76 Do not compare attack power ( which should be around 2500 at ur level ) to your spellpower, its very different.

3. My crit chance is around 10% This seems absurd low, or is this normal too when leveling?

KyMyK: My Crit Chance is 12% and i crit like every 15 seconds! Be sure u have alll the "crit chance", "crit bonus", balance tree talents. For additional info check my EU Sylvanas character KyMyK in wow armory, check talents maybe it will cheer you up on how you should put them ( Be warned that i made my talent tree for PvP not for PvE! )

I would also recommend that u /delete that Offhand and get a two hand staff with loads of intelect/stamina/spellpower And /delete those green items too they are pure crap. I recommend The Nexus, Drak'Tharon Keep, The Old Kingdom, Violet Hold, Gundrak Keep 2-3 runs each till u get better stuff. Im full blue and im 76 trust me i know what im talking about

Re: Spellpower while leveling

umm i went balance at the start of wotlk and pretty much just run instances for the quests and it is common to have cloth gear.. i think i have about 2-3 pieces of leather right now (lvl78) and it seems to be doing just fine

Re: Spellpower while leveling

"Im full blue and im 76 trust me i know what im talking about"

what? o_O

...anyway, to the original poster: i have played a balance druid since before tbc, through raid content and pvp both. generally you want to maintain a decent crit rating on your moonkin, but it doesnt have to be through the roof. moonkins have a couple of nice, crit-triggered buffs so you want to make sure you get those at regular intervals... my personal rule of thumb is 15-20% for pvp and above 25% for pve. this is fully epic-geared and moonkin aura included. for leveling... start working to get that hit rating capped. with balance of power talented, you will need +13% to hit, and that equals 350-ish at lvl 80. pick gear with hit rating unless something else is obviously much higher quality. getting that hit capped will help you A LOT in heroics and starter raids. after hit is capped, haste is generally the stat that will give you most dmg per point. but high haste makes you burn your mana faster, so i wouldnt recommend stacking haste until you feel comfortable with your mana pool and regen. if you are going pve mostly like me, i suggest you spec to the full third tier in the resto tree and then stack some spirit, its better than ever if you have improved moonkin form. wear leather in pvp and a cloth/leather combo in pve. good luck and enjoy.

Re: Spellpower while leveling

Now this may come as a shock but there is actually another color: Green

yes indeed folks - you can wear green gear! I had some "problem" slots and ended up with a couple of green leather items that although did not quite give the same stats as Blues on balance it was better to wear a Leather green than sacrifice a whole bunch of armor to wear cloth.

Someone made the comment about my greens (that I had enchanted) and I pointed out that I would replace it in around 10-15 hrs play time and I had it enchanted because a guildie wanted skillups.

(just a thought about skillups: I ran an instance with an enchanter who said give me all the greens so he could DE and /roll highest get enchant - he gave away 2 enchants at the end. Good idea IMO)

Re: Spellpower while leveling

im level 74 and i didn't have one piece of moonkin gear from BC because i was feral, except for the idol of the unseen moon, which i picked up with left over badges. now i have almost 900 sp and almost 14% crit, and im wearing... 3 pieces of leather, all my gear being from quest rewards, random drops, and dungeons. if you're like me and didnt have access to t6 moonkin gear this is about average

Re: Spellpower while leveling

Originally Posted by KYMYK

Also, it is highly recommended that if u want to be a Restokin ( Healing with Balance Talents ), u should be FULL CLOTH. Full cloth is less armor better stats

I'd disagree with that - just because it has less armor doesn't mean it has better other stats. Armor (apart from bonus armor which doesn't exist anymore other than cloaks, rings, trinkets, weapons) doesn't count towards itemization points, so it's entirely possible to have leather being best-in-slot for a boomkin or resto druid.

To the OP - just ignore armor and take what stats are best, whether that's leather or cloth.

I would also recommend that u /delete that Offhand and get a two hand staff with loads of intelect/stamina/spellpower And /delete those green items too they are pure crap. I recommend The Nexus, Drak'Tharon Keep, The Old Kingdom, Violet Hold, Gundrak Keep 2-3 runs each till u get better stuff. Im full blue and im 76 trust me i know what im talking about

Again, I'd disagree. 1h + offhand almost always gets you more SP, which is our second best stat after hit rating, and best once capped. Haste might take over when we get better gear, but at this stage SP is where it's at and 1h + offhand is best to get it.

As for deleting greens - what kind of recommendation is that? Is he supposed to wear nothing until he gets blues? Personally while levelling I think it's pretty pointless to farm instances for gear as you're better off just questing for exp to hit 80, then worry about gear.

Re: Spellpower while leveling

I think we should make a case to Blizz about boomkins having to wear cloth due to lack of caster leather drops.

This has been on the official forums for numerous times now. Since we can put some healing-leather to use in WotlK, the situation got a bit better, and really only exists pre-raid/pre-arena. Set pieces are usually quite good, so you will fill most slots with it when raiding (all if PvPing). The only problem is that cloth-classes usually complain a lot when you roll for cloth items, even if you can prove that it would be "the thing" for that slot for you too. In PvE, armor is not an issue, legitimation is. (Mostly experienced in random groups; guildies are usually way more forgiving ).

Re: Spellpower while leveling

Medium9 - Was afraid so, I did Tundra, Fjord and the Blight and I came across about 5 pieces of spell leather. Blizz should get its itemization right :/
ts low

Spots - I started out with around 5 blues and 3 epics, half was some quickly bought together rep rewards. I had a +spellpower of around +520. Now thats low

KYMYK - If I come across someting that I can wear and has beter caster stats, I tanke it. In doubt I compare them in the Wowhead item comparison tool and let them fight it out in there :P
Also, if I come across a staff that has more stats then my dagger and offhand combined I'll gladly take it. I ran the Nexus, Utgarde, old kingdom and violet hold a minimum of 3 times each, old kindom 5 times because of the offhand but I havn't been that lucky with drops :/
And yes, I tanked in TBC so I know the difference between AP and SP :P

Fijo - Same here =)

sZimm - First time I did violet hold all the bosses where 3 levels higher then me. I missed like there was no tomorrow, will be on the lookout for +hit =)

Holmenid - Or give the option to restrict leather when in moonkin form but change the armor multiplier to 600% or something

mutantboy - Same story, if a green has better stats then a blue, I take it. Screw the color!

Felane - Same here brother. Although I secretly had some caster gear on my bank allready

Degrador - agree, agree and hmmm....

This was overwhelming and helpfull ;D Im just gonna do some more higher level instances I think. I tend to level faster then I can switch zones and most of the time dont do instances till I have the quests for it.

Re: Spellpower while leveling

I think we should make a case to Blizz about boomkins having to wear cloth due to lack of caster leather drops.

check rep award, and i remember seeing a few in 80s instance

Originally Posted by Alkaliho

Hello all

I'm a former feral drood and I decided to respecc balance halfway level 71 because I was really sick of kitty charge
I had some blues n epix I offspec rolled tanking in Kara and ZA wich I quickly supplemented with quests rewards. Now I have a coupe of questions.

1. Is it normal for a moonkin to wear a crapload of cloth? Half my gear is cloth, so AoE grinding has become tougher because of lessening armor values. Are more moonkins experiencing this?

Actually its pretty normal, armour isn't usually the issue here as long as you can time your spells right.....

2. Also, I have unbuffed around 700-800 spellpower. Fully buffed I have gotten up to 1200 spellpower using my Idol of the Unseen Moon and popping trinkets. Is my unbuffed spell power supposed to be this low? Or am I staring myself blind on people with t6 and s4 gear?

[700-800 is bare karazhan essentials, it's pretty low, but not too ridiculously low.... you should hit about 1k minimum about 73, i wouldnt worry much. I would stay away from pvp though....

3. My crit chance is around 10% This seems absurd low, or is this normal too when leveling?

I would suggest aiming for the staff drops in the AN dungeon (think its AN) at 72- 73

Also, aim for kaluk and kirin tor rep (revered with kaluk isnt hard, make sure you do the dragonblight's, howling bjord's, and valence keep's quest, that should easily get you revered by the time you do ALL the quests.

All of Time and Space, Everything that has happened or will happened, Where do you want to start?

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Re: Spellpower while leveling

If you really want leather sp gear: Check rep gear as said, i think the seal men have a nice blue piece, run some instances and also leatherworking makes a semi-decent green set, with two blue pieces at around 400 lw, so if you have any lw'ing friends bug em to make some pieces.